COMMUNITY VIOLENCE AND CHILDREN
As Carole Goguen wrote in her fact sheet for A National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
, community violence includes predatory violence, which involves a stranger being violent or making threats of violence, and violence arising from non-family interpersonal conflicts. Both of these types of violence include shootings, rapes, stabbings, beatings, and other brutal acts. Because children and adolescents see or become involved in community violence in their own neighborhoods and schools, it is now recognized as a public health issue.
All children and adolescents are at risk of being somehow involved in community violence. As you would think, living in poor, inner-city areas seems to increase the risk for community violence exposure. There are other things that can also put people at a greater risk; for example, gang affiliation and substance abuse, but nothing can guarantee that a child will or will not experience any violence.
Children are not only affected by community violence when they are hurt or threatened, but also when they see it being done to someone else. Our textbook, Exploring Child Development tells us that one-third of children in high crime areas in United States cities witness a homicide, and more than two-thirds witness a serious assault. Witnessing a violent act is actually a more common way children become involved in violence. In a study done by the Child and Family Psychosocial Research Center, 165 children, 111 first and second graders, and 54 fifth and sixth graders were surveyed, and the amount of children somehow involved in violence was overwhelming. Of the first and second graders, 21% of them have been victims of and 84% had witnessed at least one violent act, 3% of which were murders. Results in the fifth and sixth graders were even higher, showing that 35% had been involved, while 90% had witnessed an act, 4% of which were murders. These rates are even higher in a survey done by our
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